Elite is twenty-five years old

Elite IV due for release soon, promises David Braben

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Elite, one of the most groundbreaking videogames of all time, celebrates its 25th anniversary this week, with the game's creator confirming that they are still working on the mythical 'proper' sequel Elite IV.

David Braben's Frontier Developments will be more familiar to younger gamers (or at least, those under the age of 30) for their more recent games such as Lostwinds and theme-park sim Thrillville.

However, Braben has confirmed with BBC news this week that he would be "mad not to go back to the world of Elite and I'm very excited about it."

Will ship when ready

No further concrete details in terms of release dates, publisher plans or, indeed, how far (if at all) into the development of a new Elite game he and his team are currently forthcoming.

TechRadar has requested an audience with the man himself to talk more about Elite IV so stay tuned for updates.

Braben had some effort persuading conservative games publishers back in the early 1980s that Elite was a viable commercial proposition. The game was eventually published by Acorn Soft, a division of Acorn, the company that also manufactured the BBC Microcomputer .

Elite infamously sold more copies than Acorn sold BBC Microcomputers, as many players would take the game into their school computer labs to play.